"Rail spurs are great— but not for trash"
Finger Lakes Times
8A Thursday, Jan. 26, 2010
To the Editor:
The owners of Finger Lakes Railway
and Seneca Meadows Landfill are asking
us for money — federal and state grants
totaling millions to build a spur to the
landfill. Is this where and how we want to
spend our dollars?
We are all taxpayers. These gifts, should
they be given, come from all of us. There
are circumstances when it makes sense to
support business in making long-term
investments. Is this one of those projects?
I say no.
Their proposal does nothing to reduce
the amount of trash being dumped in our
region — it just makes it easier to get it
here.
I find no compelling logic in their
request for us to buy existing rail lines,
improve them and then just hand this
asset over to them. Once constructed,
other than trash, what are they really
committing to provide us in return?
Please come back with a different proposal.
How about upgrading the ability to
move the region’s agricultural products
and helping our farmers be more competitive?
Let’s invest in refrigeration cars to
move fresh produce to markets rather
than railcars carrying trash and leachate.
How about actually committing to passenger
service? Helping locals and visitors
move around the region and growing
tourism is a worthy investment — not
running a spur to view a mountain of
trash.
There’s a lot that we can and want to
say yes to. The rail lines connect us all —
from Canandaigua, Shortsville, Phelps,
Geneva, Penn Yan, Auburn and more.
Let’s make investments that are sustainable,
add value and purpose to our lives
and that of generations to come.
Let’s not tie our future to trash. Let’s
reject this spur to serve one new customer
whose business here is limited. Or is it?
Giving these owners, our money, the rail
lines and this spur they request, who’s
next in line for another spur with more
trash?
As with so many spurs — it’s just a
dead-end. Please let all our public representatives
know that this grant should be
rejected as another dead-end, not worthy
of our region’s future and another waste of
money.
KENNY SONTHEIM
Phelps
http://fltimes.com/content/e-edition/2010/01/26/1/8A.pdf
Finger Lakes Times
6A Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010
Keep landfill in mind when
voting for SF representation
To the Editor and the People of
Seneca Falls:
I have lived in this land between
the lakes for over 50 years and am
constantly enamored with its beauty.
It is therefore with foreboding
that I broach a subject that is on
everyone’s minds: the Seneca
Meadows landfill and its dominance
on our landscape, our lives
and our future.
Thirty years ago, the landfill was
just a new business. Today it rises
over a near level topography to 250
feet, not one pile, but two, and now
to be connected by a third. Daily,
6,000 tons of trash, garbage,
sludge, incinerator ash and
unwantables are deposited, not
only from our area, but from faraway
cities and states, even
Canada. It has become a major
industry, and an aggressive industry
that affects the citizens of the
entire county and then some. Its
growth in the last 10 years has
earned it the title of the “largest
landfill in the Northeast.” The
results of this growth have lined
the pockets of mainly the Town of
Seneca Falls and to a lesser extent
the Town of Waterloo, while spewing
noxious odors almost daily, generating
thousands of gallons of
toxic leachate for treatment and
deposit in our lakes, and making
the land footprint unusable. It’s
certainly not a tourist attraction,
but it does stand in the doorway to
our area.
Many towns around the area
have complained of the constant
garbage truck traffic, for good reason.
The landfill’s answer is trash-by-
train which will remove some
but raise other issues and problems.
A total of three grants
(grants = your money) have been
proposed by our lawmakers to
rehab rail lines and build a spur
and unloading facilities for Seneca
Meadows. It is estimated to remove
about 10 percent of the trucks.
However, this low-cost transportation
will extend the reach of Seneca
Meadows to new areas, possibly
Chicago, Washington, D.C.,
Memphis, Atlanta, wherever rail is
available, and the landfill will grow
exponentially and so will its daily
deposit.
It is time to call a halt. The landfill
exists at the pleasure of the
Town of Seneca Falls and its Town
Board. Demand your elected officials
stop this road to perdition.
Make the issue at your Town Board
meetings, each and every meeting.
If they will not change direction,
then it’s time to elect officials who
see a better future than landfill, for
Seneca Falls ... and its neighbors.
LELAND C. HENRY
Waterloo
http://fltimes.com/content/e-edition/2010/01/28/1/6A.pdf